Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • The Google Solution

    I was watching a talk from Google on how they back up their data. After all, one of the biggest assets Google has is the tremendous amount of data that they have collected over the years. There are many systems at Google, and certainly lots of data in each of them. In this case, Gmail was the system being discussed, and the data is in the exabyte range. If you don’t have an hour to watch the talk, then there’s a nice summary at highscalabilty.

    In the talk, there are certainly things that Google aims to do with their approach. First, they can’t lose data. That’s a priority, as it should be for all of us that manage data. They also focus on restores, not backups. In fact, if they can make restores easily by adding work and complexity to backups, that’s a trade-off worth making. I haven’t typically viewed the restore process this way, though I do think restores are ultimately the most important part of any recovery task. However, I haven’t really thought about how I could actually make restores easier by changing something at backup time. I’ve often tried to make backups quicker, or take them more often, but perhaps this is an area to re-examine. Are there things you can think of that would make restores easier? Maybe not easy enough for your cat to kick off (as discussed in the video), but easy for the average sysadmin at your company?

    Google wants redundancy, which includes people. They can’t depend on any one machine, one tape, or one person. Therefore, they need to have multiple copies of data and more automation that reduce those single points of failure. Along those lines, our clients and customers don’t need to know if we have 3 copies, 7 machines, or any other configuration. Our responsibility is to ensure our customers can access data.

    Why should we care what Google does with GMail or any of their systems? Well, I only see our databases growing, with sizes going from GB and millions of rows to TB and billions of rows, or even to PBs. There are lessons that we can learn about the management of data at scale, and the ways in which our customers might perceive the availability and accessibility of their information. Google has learned they need to be more efficient with resource usage. Whether that’s disks or people, they can’t require 1000 times more resources for 1000 times more data. We should take note of that.

    Perhaps the best lessons from Google are in the areas of testing and expectations. They test constantly, to ensure that they can actually recover data. While I think the SQL Server backup system is very solid, I’d be regularly testing restores to ensure that I really can recover from backup files, from external disks and tape, or even complete a restore on a backup system. The other lesson is that Google expects things to fail, so they plan for that, and aren’t surprised by failures. SQL Server gives us options here with Always On and other HA technologies if we can take advantage of them. With a single RDBMS instance, there isn’t a lot most of us can do, but we can at least be prepared to rebuild our instance elsewhere as a last resort.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Go Code

    Should we be teaching more people to code? That’s a question I ponder, especially after re-reading an old view against the idea, a newer one, and a pro-code piece. At the end of the day, I think that coding is a basic skill, similar to reading and writing because so many of us, perhaps most of us in the developed world, will need to work with computers.

    I don’t mean to imply that everyone should be able to write an MVC application or produce a graphical application. I also don’t expect most people to understand calculus or produce a thesis. However, I do want a core competency that allows them to work effectively with a checkbook and communicate a point effectively. I want them to understand enough coding to appreciate the logical and methodical way in which computers process instructions. I’d like to have most people appreciate how to create, store,  shuffle, and retrieve a digital deck of cards.

    Certainly I think that those people who continue to learn and advance in many industries can benefit from an understanding of what a database is, how to write a query that might logically fetch information. Even if you use a tool such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau, etc., knowing the ways in which we store information and need to process it can help you better work with the computing machines in your life.

    Perhaps seeing how easy it can be to produce bugs will help people also appreciate the need for better security. I’d hope this would also have them demanding that professional software developers produce better work. Quality matters, and while I might be able to build a car, I would expect that one produced by professionals would be of a much higher quality, and much more reliable than my own efforts.

    Having a basic understanding of how computers think will not only help us understand our systems better (or the people that design them), but can also help us develop thoughts and views on how we should reconcile the digital with analog world. I strongly feel that our understanding of, and the expectations we have in the analog world are very much inadequate for assessing a digital world that can accomplish things many people would have viewed as magic a few years ago. Certainly our legal structures aren’t well equipped to work in a digital era. To help us move forward, I’d like more people to understand computing.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • A Good Deed After Game Night

    When we set up Game Night, we decided to sell tickets to reduce our risk. However, we didn’t have a good way to easily match up the ticket price with the costs of drinks. As a result, we ended up with about $105 extra from our ticket sales over the bar bill.

    When Andy (b|t) and I work on putting together an event, it’s not usually to make money. In fact, we often joke that our best ideas have no way to make money. That’s OK, since part of what we believe is that we need to make a difference in the world at times. We work to earn money for our families, but we also want to spend time trying to do some good in the world.

    As a result, we wanted to take the extra money and help someone. We had a few ideas, and contacted some people, but eventually settled on this.

    Don Kolenda needed eye surgery. He’s a member of our SQL Server community, and we decided to donate the $105 to Don. If any of you want to help Don, please feel free to do so.

    Thanks to everyone that supported Game Night, and know that a little bit of your ticket sales went to help someone in need.

  • Growing Speakers for T-SQL Tuesday #84

    tsql2sday150x150It’s T-SQL Tuesday again, and for $#84, we have a non-technical topic. Hopefully this will then let us produce more technical content by growing new speakers. That’s the topic from Andy Yun, and it’s a good one.

    This is the monthly blog party, and you should feel to participate today, or any day in the future. Read Andy’s invitation for the rules.

    No Shortage of Speakers

    When we started SQL Saturday, Andy Warren and I worried about finding speakers for events. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen many, many people begin speaking and enjoy it. I don’t worry about finding speakers for SQL Saturdays anymore.

    However, I do think we could do more to encourage even more people to speak and share knowledge. One of the problems we have in this industry is that we don’t always get information spread out quickly to a wide audience and evolve our practices. Too many of us use our habitual practices long after there are better ways to build software. One of the ways we can work to improve the industry is with more speakers.

    I’ve given a talk on creating your first technical speaking opportunity. I can say that it worked since a couple of people that were in the audience have actually given presentations at the user group. One of the items that I suggest in there is picking something you’ve learned/solved, and then teach it to others in your company/department/group.

    This is often an easier way to get started, since it will be a smaller group, one you know, and it’s safer. It could even be more of a discussion you lead than a presentation.

    Certainly this can be hard as you need to be open to debate, accept you might get some things wrong, and that you might learn something. There is stress in trying to come across as an expert, but I’d rather you try to teach something, with the idea that this is your understanding of a topic, but you are open to admitting you might be wrong if someone else knows more.

    If that’s the case, then perhaps have that individual present next time.

    I’d really encourage more groups and departments to get a weekly presentation together from someone. This can be at lunch, or a standing meeting. This can be a group learning style like the SDTIG, or a quick 20 minute presentation on some topic.

    Just try it.

    Learn, speak, share.

    Get some buy in from your management to support this, and if you need a good reason, use this.

    Corporate Dilemma